Rankings: Trial Aces

In 1995, only 11 years into her career, Norton Rose Fulbright’s Gerry Lowry received perhaps the highest vote of confidence any trial lawyer can get: a letter from a judge sent to her firm’s head of litigation praising her trial work.

Winston & Strawn LLP’s co-chairman Dan K. Webb has cross-examined former President Ronald Reagan and other prominent figures during his 45 years as a trial attorney, a career that’s defined by “relentless” preparation and a “common-sense” approach that appeals to judges and jurors alike.

WilmerHale partner Bill Lee, one of Apple's lead attorneys in the smartphone wars, only stumbled upon patent law more than a decade into his legal career, but he learned long before that — as a high school and collegiate soccer player — that success in any competition requires a team effort.

White & Case LLP partner J. Mark Gidley developed his passion for debate in the classroom, cross-examining fellow students on topics like normalizing trade relations with Cuba, then went on to help his University of Kansas team win the National Debate Tournament in 1983. Turns out he was also honing skills destined to blossom in the courtroom.

From helping Toshiba Corp. escape billions of dollars of LCD price-fixing claims to triumphing over the Federal Trade Commission in the first pay-for-delay trial, White & Case LLP's Christopher Curran has been racking up victories since he first fell in love with litigation in Bermuda three decades ago.

Many lawyers fresh off a $1 billion win may not be described as “down-to-earth,” but colleagues, clients and adversaries of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP partner Diane P. Sullivan say her lack of an air is the very thing that allows her to dominate in the courtroom.

While other boys played football or baseball, Harry Reasoner, a year younger than his classmates and no star athlete, fell in love with a different sport: debate. After five decades and 47 wins for Vinson & Elkins LLP, it's clear that trying lawsuits is one game he plays well.

During nearly 40 years in the courtroom, Steptoe & Johnson LLP partner Michael Dockterman has nimbly blended old-school and new-school techniques, at times deploying his towering 6-foot-4 persona during blistering cross-examinations and charming judges with testimony from stuffed animals.

With mediation and arbitration on the rise, some legal experts say taking a dispute to trial is generally a waste of money and time. But Rusty Hardin, the Texas trial veteran with a national reputation for winning over juries in both civil and criminal cases, isn’t buying it.

Growing up in Germany, Roman Silberfeld had been taught that practicing law was a noble profession on par with being a doctor. But because he couldn’t stand the sight of blood, he chose litigation over sutures and ended up becoming one of the most sought-after trial attorneys around.

Robins Kaplan LLP partner Martin Lueck’s switch in career paths from music teacher to nationally respected trial lawyer at the center of billion-dollar lawsuits is not as strange as it may seem, as the skills he acquired while mastering jazz trumpet have been key to his success as a litigator.

When William Price was tapped to defend Micron Technology Inc. in an antitrust case seeking some $12 billion in damages, the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP litigator knew a loss would likely kill the company and devastate the economy of Micron's home base in Idaho. For Price, though, that kind of pressure is a motivator.

Playing a lead role in the prosecution of one of the highest-profile domestic terrorism cases of the 1990s and securing the death penalty for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh taught Beth A. Wilkinson of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP the skills she would later use to deliver major victories for large tobacco and pharmaceutical companies.

He made his name successfully defending public officials and earned recent fame with his eponymous professional sports investigations, but Ted Wells' commitment to the courtroom began with a New Jersey federal clerkship — and the Cold War.

Roughly 35 years after working his way through law school at night, Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers LLP has become a sought-after litigator who famously won $33.5 million in a wrongful death case against O.J. Simpson, but he may never have set foot in a courtroom if he’d had better luck with the trumpet.

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP partner Winstol D. “Winn” Carter is widely known for disarming juries through a mix of charm and smarts, a combination that often results in innovative strategies to help transform complex concepts into easily digestible ideas.

It's hard to establish yourself as a bankable trial lawyer without some blood, sweat and tears, and that's doubly true when you're simultaneously building an 11-lawyer firm into the 185-lawyer, nationwide litigation firm that McKool Smith PC has become since its 1991 launch.

He’s spent more than 30 years in the courtroom and keeps daily tabs on the latest in intellectual property law, but friends and colleagues say you can chalk Doug Cawley’s more than $1 billion in patent victories up to his way of wooing juries.

McKool Smith PC's Sam Baxter has been recognized for his "folksy" Texas charm and ability to touch the hearts of jurors, but his willingness to draw verbal daggers in court and crush witnesses was on display in some of his latest courtroom victories, adding to an already impressive trial record.

Representing clients on both sides of the bar, McGuireWoods LLP partner Ron Franklin has mastered a formula for winning over juries, as evidenced by his success in litigating cases ranging from personal injury to libel to commercial disputes over a four-decadeslong career.

A focused and meticulous litigator, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP partner Richard M. Heimann does not shy away from taking down industry heavyweights for shady conduct, zealously steering more than 100 criminal and civil trials throughout a decadeslong career with cool logic and persuasiveness.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner James Hurst has built an imposing record as a trial lawyer but still recalls his first major cross-examination, when he was so nervous he considered running away, a nervousness he's more than conquered since, repeatedly winning major pharmaceutical patent trials by going “for the jugular” in court.

When companies including Merck & Co. Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and General Motors Co. want to win product liability cases, they could call in an attack dog of an attorney to pull apart their legal foes in front of juries. Instead, they hire King & Spalding LLP's Chilton Davis Varner, described by her colleagues as a "velvet hammer."

Over the course of a more than 40-year career, San Francisco-based John Keker has been the attorney that plaintiffs and defendants call when they need an advocate, whether they are looking to settle a high-stakes patent dispute or defend against a criminal charge that could send them to prison for years.

For nearly two decades at Jones Day, Stephanie Parker has been an instrumental part of the tobacco industry’s steadily successful litigation campaign against tort cases involving brutal respiratory illnesses and premature deaths, playing the delicate and complex role behind many historic first victories for longtime client R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.